Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales Part 11

When dinner was over they all lay down to rest, but the prince hastened off as quickly as he could to Ivan Golik, and said, "Now indeed it is all over with us, for he has given me such and such a task."

"Simpleton!" cried Ivan Golik, "when they bring forth this bow, look at it, and say to the serpent, 'I should be ashamed to bend a bow that the least of my servants can bend!' Then call me, and I'll bend the bow so that none other will be able to bend it again."

With that the prince went straight off to the serpent again, and the serpent commanded and they brought the bow, together with an arrow weighing fifty poods. When the prince saw it, he was like to have died of fright; but they put the bow down in the middle of the courtyard, and all the guests came out to look at it. The prince walked all round the bow and looked at it. "Why," said he, "I would not deign to touch a bow like that. I'll call one of my servants, for any one of them can bend such a bow as that!"

Then the serpent looked at the prince's servants one after the other, and said, "Well, let them try!"

"Come forward thou, Ivan Golik!" cried the prince.

And the prince said to him, "Take me up that bow and bend it!"

Ivan Golik took up the bow, placed the arrow across it, and drew the bow so that the arrow split into twelve pieces and the bow burst.

Then the prince said, "Did I not tell you? and was I to put myself to shame by touching a bow that one of my servants can draw?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: IVAN GOLIK DREW THE BOW]

After that Ivan Golik returned to his fellow-servants, and put the pieces of the broken bow behind his s.h.i.+n-bone; but the prince returned with the serpents into the guest-chamber, and they all rejoiced because he had done his appointed task. But the serpent whispered something in the ear of his youngest daughter, and she went out, and he after her. They remained outside a long time, and then the serpent came in again, and said to the prince, "There is no time for anything more to-day, but we'll begin again early to-morrow morning. I have a horse behind twelve doors; if thou canst mount it, thou shalt have my daughter."

Then they made merry again till evening and lay down to sleep, but the prince went and told Golik. Golik listened to the prince, and said, "Now thou knowest, I suppose, why I took up those pieces of the broken bow, for I could see what was coming. When they lead forth this horse, look at it and say, 'I will not mount that horse lest I put myself to shame. 'Tis with the horse as with the bow, any one of my servants can mount it!' But that horse is no horse at all, but the serpent's youngest daughter! Thou must not sit upon her back, but I will trounce her finely."

Early in the morning they all arose, and the prince went to the serpent's house to greet them all, and there he saw twenty of the serpent's daughters, but where was the twenty-first? Then the serpent got up and said, "Well, prince, now let us come down into the courtyard; they'll soon bring out the horse, and we'll see what thou dost make of it."

So they all went out and saw two serpents bringing out the horse, and it was as much as the pair of them could do to hold its head, so fierce and strong it was. They led it out in front of the gallery, and the prince walked round it and looked at it. Then said he, "What! did you not say you would bring out a _horse_? Why, this is no horse, but a mare. I will not sit on this mare, for 'twould be to my shame. I will call one of my servants, and he shall mount her."

"Good!" said the serpent, "let him try!"

The prince called forth Ivan Golik. "Sit on that mare," said he, "and trot her about!"

Ivan mounted the mare, and the two serpents let go. She carried him right up among the clouds, and then down again upon the ground she came, with a ringing of hoofs that made the earth tremble. But Ivan Golik took out a fragment of the broken bow, fifty pounds in weight, and trounced her finely. She reared and bucked and carried him hither and thither, but he flogged her between the ears without ceasing. So when she saw that all her prancing and curveting was in vain, she fell to piteously beseeching him, and cried, "Ivan Golik! Ivan Golik! beat me not, and I'll do all thy behests!"

"I have nothing to do with thee at all," said he, "but when thou dost come up to the prince, fall down before him, and stretch out thy legs toward him!"

At this she bethought her for a long time. "Well," cried she at last, "it must be so, there is no doing anything with thee!" So she carried him all over the courtyard, fell down before the prince, and stretched out her legs toward him.

Then said the prince, "Thou seest what a sorry jade it is! And ye would have had me mount such a mare!"

At this the serpent was full of shame, but there was nothing to be said or done. So they went into the garden and sat them down to dinner. The youngest daughter met them there, and they greeted her.

The prince could not refrain from looking at her, so fair was she, and now she seemed fairer than ever. Then they sat down and ate, and when the meal was over the serpent said, "Well, prince, after dinner I'll bring all my daughters into the courtyard, and if you can find out the youngest, you may be happy together."

So after dinner the serpent bade his daughters go and dress themselves, but the prince took counsel of Ivan Golik. Ivan whistled, and immediately the gnat came flying up. He told the gnat all about it, and the gnat said, "Thou didst help me, so now I will help thee.

When the serpent brings out his daughters, let the prince keep his eyes open, for I will fly on her head. Let him walk round them once, and I will fly round them too. Let him walk round them a second time, and I will fly round them twice also. Let him walk round them a third time, and then I'll settle on her nose, and she will not be able to endure my bite, but will strike at me with her right hand." And with these words the gnat flew off into the house.

Soon afterward the serpent sent for the prince. He went, and there in the courtyard stood the twenty-one daughters. They were as like as peas, their faces, their hair, and their raiment were exactly the same. He looked and looked, but could not tell one from the other. He walked round them the first time, but there was no sign of the gnat.

He walked round them the second time, and the gnat came and lit upon her head. Henceforth he never took his eyes off the gnat, and when he had begun to walk round the twenty-one daughters for the third time, the gnat sat on the nose of the youngest, and began to bite her. She brushed it off with her right hand, whereupon the prince said, "She is mine!" and led her to the serpent.

The serpent was amazed, but said, "Since thou hast found out thy bride, we'll wed thee to-day, and all be merry together."

So they made them merry, and that very evening the young couple got their bridal crowns. And they feasted and fired guns, and what else did they not do? But at night, Ivan Golik took the prince aside, and said to him, "Now, prince, see that we go home to-morrow, for they mean us no good here. And now, listen to me! I beg thee tell not thy wife the truth of the matter for seven years. However caressing she may be, thou shalt not let her ears know the truth, for if thou _dost_ tell her the truth, both thou and I shall peris.h.!.+"

"Good!" said he. "I will not tell my wife the truth."

Next morning the young men arose and went to the serpent, and the prince took leave of his father-in-law, and said he must be going home.

"But why off so soon?" said the serpent.

"Nay, but I must go," said he.

Then the serpent gave the youth a banquet, and they sat down and ate and made merry, and after that he departed to his own tsardom. And the prince thanked Ivan Golik for all that he had done for him, and made him the first of his counsellors. Whatever Ivan Golik said was performed throughout the realm, while the Tsar had only to sit on his throne and do nothing.

So the young prince dwelt with his wife for a year or two, and in the third year a son was added to them, and the heart of the prince was glad. Now one day he took his little son in his arms, and said, "Is there anything in the wide world that I like better than this child?"

When the princess saw that the heart of her spouse was tender, she fell a-kissing and caressing him, and began asking him all about the time when they were first married, and how he had been able to do her father's commands. And the prince said to her, "My head would long ago have been mouldering on the posts of thy father's palace had it not been for Ivan Golik. 'Twas he who did it all and not I."

Then she was very wrath. But she never changed countenance, and shortly afterward she went out.

Ivan Golik was sitting in his own house at his ease, when the princess came flying in to him. And immediately she drew out of the ground a handkerchief with gold borders, and no sooner had she waved this serpentine handkerchief, than Ivan fell asunder into two pieces. His legs remained where they were, but his trunk with his head disappeared through the roof, and fell seven miles away from the house. And as he fell he cried, "Oh, accursed one! did I not charge thee not to confess! Did I not implore thee not to tell thy wife the truth for seven years! And now I perish and thou also!"

He raised his head and found himself sitting in a wood, and there he saw an armless man pursuing a hare. He pursued and pursued it, but though he caught it up, he couldn't catch it, for he had no arms. Then Ivan Golik caught it and they fell out about it. The armless one said, "The hare is mine!"--"No," said Ivan Golik, "it is mine!" So they quarrelled over it, but as one had no legs and the other had no arms, they couldn't hurt one another. At last the armless one said, "What is the use of our quarrelling? Let us pull up that oak, and whichever of us pitches it farthest shall have the hare."

"Good!" said Legless.

Then Armless kicked Legless up to the oak, and Legless pulled it up and gave it to Armless. Then Armless lay down on the ground and kicked the oak with his feet three miles off. But Legless threw it seven miles. Then Armless said, "Take the hare and be my elder brother!"

So they became brothers, and made a wagon between them, and fastened ropes to it, and while Armless dragged it along Legless drove it. On they went till they came to a town where a Tsar lived. There they went up to the church, and planted themselves with their wagon in the place of beggars, and waited till the Tsarivna came up. And the Tsarivna said to her court lady, "Take this money, and give it to those poor cripples."

The lady was about to go with it when Legless said, "Nay, but let the Tsarivna give it to us with her own hands."

Then the Tsarivna took the money from her court lady and gave it to Legless. But he said to her, "Be not angry, but tell me, now, wherefore art thou so yellow?"

"G.o.d made me so," answered she, and then she sighed.

"No," replied Legless. "I know why thou art so yellow. But I can make thee once more just as G.o.d made thee."

Now the Tsar had heard them speaking, and the words of the cripples moved him strangely. So he had the armless man and the legless man in the wagon brought to him, and said to them, "Do as you are able."

But Legless said, "O Tsar! let the Tsarivna speak the truth, and confess openly how she became so yellow!"

Then the father turned to his daughter, and she confessed and said, "The serpent flew to me, and drew my blood out of my breast."

"When did he fly to thee?" they asked.

"Just before dawn, when the guards were sleeping, he came flying down my chimney. In he came flying, and lay down beneath the cus.h.i.+ons of my couch."

"Stop!" cried Legless; "we'll hide in the straw in thy room, and when the serpent comes flying in again, thou must cough and wake us."

So they hid them in the straw, and just as the guards had ceased knocking at the doors as they went their rounds, sparks began to flash beneath the straw roof, and the Tsarivna coughed. They rushed up to her, and saw the serpent already nestling beneath the cus.h.i.+ons. Then the Tsarivna leaped out of bed; but Armless lay down on the floor and kicked Legless on to the cus.h.i.+ons, and Legless took the serpent in his arms and began to throttle it. "Let me go! let me go!" begged the serpent, "and I'll never fly here again, but will renounce my t.i.thes."

But Legless said, "That is but a small thing. Thou must carry us to the place of healing waters, that I may get back my legs and my brother here his arms."